Chapter Text
Kiara didn’t know about the knife.
If she had, she never would have slammed her elbow into Luke Maybank’s face in defense of her parents and her best friend.
If she had, she would have known to duck and get out of the car the minute Luke scrabbled for something in the backseat.
But she didn’t know. And the next thing she knew pain was exploding into her shoulder. “You entitled little bi-“ Luke growled, grabbing the hilt of the knife and twisting.
Kiara screamed. Pain shot like white hot bolts of lightning through her shoulder and neck. She tried to squirm away from Luke but she was still wearing her seatbelt and it caught her around the chest, locking tight. Kiara fought with the handle of her door, still struggling with the belt, and Luke yanked the knife from her shoulder and went in for another blow.
JJ, who’d just exited the store, heard Kiara’s scream. He dropped the bags he was holding and sprinted for the car, almost falling down the steps in the process. “Kiara!!” he yelled. “Kie!!”
He yanked open her car door and ripped her seatbelt away, dragging her out of the vehicle. Kiara grabbed onto his jacket, still gasping with pain. She could feel warm wet rivulets of blood running down her back and soaking her shirt and jacket.
“What,” JJ demanded, his face murderous as he stared at Luke, who was still holding the incriminatingly blood-stained knife, “did you do?”
“Just teaching a lesson, kid,” Luke grunted, tossing the knife aside. “Don’t disrespect your elders.”
JJ jaw tightened like a guitar string. He set Kiara away from him and strode around the side of the car.
“JJ?” Kiara whimpered, clutching at her arm.
JJ reached his dad’s side of the car and pulled the door open. He dragged Luke out of the backseat, keeping hold of the front of his father’s shirt even as Luke struggled to resist. “You know what?” JJ growled. “I am done with your lessons.” He shoved Luke away from himself and the car. “You asked for my help and my answer is no. Figure it out yourself. I hope you rot in prison for the rest of your life.”
“Come on, JJ,” Luke growled, grabbing at his shoulder. “You’re gonna let your old man rot because of some slut?”
Kiara’s blood froze. Not for herself (she wasn’t about to take any of Luke Maybank’s words to heart), but because of the look that crossed JJ’s face. It was then that she knew, without a doubt… he was going to kill his father.
JJ let out a roar, spinning around and slamming his fist into Luke’s face. “Don’t call her that!!” he yelled, punching his father again so that Luke stumbled against a nearby tree. “You don’t get to touch her, you don’t get to hurt her, you don’t even get to look at her do you hear me?!”
“JJ-“ Kiara cried as the blond shoved Luke to the ground and began to pummel him with all of his might. She ran forward, reaching for his shoulder. “JJ, don’t-“
The moment her hand touched his back JJ spun around, fist still raised. Kiara gasped and staggered back a step but the darkness in JJ’s eyes cleared the instant he saw her. He swore and leapt to his feet. “Kie- oh my God, I’m so sorry. I’m not- I’d never- I didn’t know who you were.”
He reached out for her and Kiara caught his arm, staring past him at the man lying bloodied and unconscious in the dirt. “JJ, we gotta go,” she said breathlessly. “The cops with find him; they’ll take care of it.”
JJ followed her gaze, chest still heaving with exertion and fury. After a tense moment when Kiara thought he might turn back and finish the job, he broke away with a growl and stormed into the car.
Kiara let out a slow breath, swiping at her cheeks before hurrying back into the car herself. She reached for her seatbelt but the moment she moved her knifed shoulder she let out a gasp of pain. JJ’s gaze shot up towards her. “Take off your shirt,” he ordered.
“Now really isn’t the time,” Kiara teased weakly, gripping the steering wheel with one hand. “Seriously, though- we have to get back to the Twinkie, JJ. We can deal with everything else later.”
“No way,” JJ said, with a surprising amount of force. “No freaking way, Kie. You think I’m gonna risk you bleeding out because my father stabbed you?” He reached forward.
“We don’t have time,” Kiara protested, worming away from him.
“We didn’t have time for any of this!” JJ yelled. “And we still did it, because I made you, and now you’re hurt because of it! Because of me!”
“JJ Maybank, this is not your fault,” Kiara snapped at him, glaring furiously. “Your father did this. You were just trying to be a good man and give him a hand, and that’s final.” She started the car. “I’ll be fine. We need to go.”
“Kie,” JJ pleaded. “Please let me help you. Just- five minutes. Let me look.”
Kiara hesitated for a long moment, weighing her options. She didn’t want to be the reason they waisted any more time, but she knew that JJ was moments away from deteriorating and that helping her would actually help him. Besides… she was always the one trying to convince him to look after his injuries. They may have been the same age, but someone had to set a good example.
“Fine,” Kiara relented, before glancing in her side view mirror to find Luke still unconscious on the ground. “But let’s get out of here first. I’m not gonna be around when the police come for him.”
JJ nodded, risking one last look back at his dad as Kiara turned the car on and steered it out of the convenience store parking lot. She drove until they were back on a quiet, empty road, then pulled over and shut off the car again. “What do you want me to do?” she asked, looking sharply at JJ.
“Take off your shirt and let me see it,” JJ told her. On a normal day, he would have been teasing her, throwing out innuendos right and left, but Kiara could tell that he was scared. And she got it. JJ never liked to see her (or any of their friends) hurt, but the fact that he felt that he had been the one to put her in danger made it ten times worse.
Kiara sighed and carefully shrugged off her jacket before slowly pulling the hem of her shirt over her head. She glared out the front windshield as she felt JJ reaching to take her arm and inspect her shoulder wound. It was just like wearing a bathing suit in front of him, right?
Except it wasn’t a bathing suit she was sitting in, it was a bra, and JJ didn’t usually brush her hair away from her neck and sweep his fingers over her bare skin like he was doing now.
“This gonna take much longer?” Kiara asked through gritted teeth, gripping the steering wheel with the hand of her good arm. “I can literally feel the Twinkie getting flooded as we speak.”
JJ’s hand touched a particularly sore part of her shoulder and Kiara flinched away from him. “Okay, JJ, enough!”
“It looks really deep, Kie,” JJ said, ignoring her. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a stained bandana. “I’m gonna- I’m gonna try wrapping it to stop the bleeding.”
“It didn’t go through; there’s just one hole,” Kiara turned her back to him so he had better access. “Just, I dunno, tie it in the back so there’s more pressure?” She let out a breath. “I wish Pope was here.”
She felt JJ’s hands still and then fall away. When she twisted her head, he was staring out the window, eyes red-rimmed. “Yeah,” he muttered. “If you were with him none of this ever would have happened.”
“That’s not what I-“ Kiara let out a groan. “He knows first aid, JJ, that’s the only reason I said I wished he was here. I’ve gotten into trouble with Pope dozens of times! John B and Sarah, too. I just know for a fact that you can barely tie your shoelaces, much less a bandana around a stab wound.”
JJ’s lips twitched. “I can tie my own shoelaces,” he grumbled, starting to wrap the wound.
When Kiara was as bound up as possible, JJ helped her redress. “You should, um, probably go to a hospital at some point. Get that looked at.”
Kiara gave him an incredulous look. “That is rich coming from you.”
“Fair,” JJ muttered, lips quirking again. He gave her a nudge. “I should drive, though. You should try to keep your shoulder as still as possible because if we’re being honest I don’t know how well that wrap is gonna hold.”
Kiara relented, hopping out of the car. JJ met her in front of the hood and grabbed her elbow. “Kie,” he said in a low voice. “I’m really, really sorry. I never- I never meant for any of this to- to-“
His voice cracked, fingers biting into the thick fabric of her fuzzy jacket.
“JJ. It’s okay.” Kiara leaned forward, taking advantage of his dipped head to press a kiss to his cheek. “Now we gotta go, okay? We gotta go.”
JJ’s jaw spasmed and he didn’t meet her eyes. But he nodded, and the two of them got back into the car.